


Checkmate

by Goodluckdetective (scorpiontales)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 18:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12753456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpiontales/pseuds/Goodluckdetective
Summary: Jesse McCree was the best chess player Hanzo Shimada had ever met.This would be less of a problem if that title didn’t previously belong to Hanzo.





	Checkmate

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was my piece for the infamous mchanzine. I am obviously heartbroken over what happened and if you'd like to know more about my thoughts you can see my full response on my blog, but otherwise here it is you crazy kids.

Jesse McCree was the best chess player Hanzo Shimada had ever met.

This would be less of a problem if that title didn’t previously belong to Hanzo.

It was stupid really, how worked up Hanzo was about the entire thing. McCree didn’t compete professionally, he wasn’t on any chess teams, and as far as Hanzo knew he had no plan of joining one anytime soon. Unlike Hanzo, he stayed out of the competitive circuit entirely, content with his job as TA to one Gabriel Reyes. As far as anyone else knew, McCree hadn’t played a game of chess in his life and were he to start, it would be a disaster from start to finish. Because who would ever suspect that the plaid wearing, easy talking, buff guy would be practiced in the art of chess.

Hanzo hadn’t suspected. He knew better now. McCree has beaten him far too often for it just to be luck. Which was a problem.

Because how was Hanzo supposed to deal with the fact that the very good looking, history TA, with an appetite for old cowboy movies and tacky t-shirts, also was great at chess. It should be illegal for a man to be that attractive. Unless he was dating Hanzo, of course.

“Checkmate,” McCree said as he moved his queen into cornering Hanzo once again. They’d already played two games this morning and Hanzo hadn’t won once so far. If Hanzo was the same man he was a year ago, he would have stormed out after the first loss, off to nurse his pride with cheap liquor. Anything to ignore the feeling of failure, the idea of falling short of the perfection expected from him. But that was last year. And Hanzo is no longer the man he was then.

Instead of flipping the board, Hanzo just leaned back and took a sip of his drink. It was non-alcoholic, drinking and chess was a disaster, and looked upon the board with an expression that could almost be described as impressed. “Not bad cowboy.”

“Not bad? That’s all I get?” McCree leaned forward, his elbows on the chess table. It was a tiny thing, just big enough to hold the pieces, a timer and the board itself. Situated in a gazebo at the local park, it was the only chess table that managed to be in a covered area. It was a Sunday morning, still early enough for the joggers to be doing their rounds. The still rising sun was blocked by the gazebo roof. It was the reason Hanzo liked the spot; eye strain and chess were intolerable. McCree, on the other hand, liked it because he thought the board was lucky.

”You could have beaten me in fewer turns,” Hanzo said, taking his fallen pieces. He started to put them on the board again. They were his own set, one his brother gifted him after he won his first major tournament. That was years ago and now the handcrafted blue tinted warriors showed only the slightest signs of abuse. McCree’s brought his own pieces as well, though they changed from game to game. One round they were the cheapest plastic monstrosities Hanzo had ever seen. Another they were a set that looked to be custom made given how each piece was western themed. The pieces he had brought today were a simple wooden set, each piece painted red.

“Still won.”

“But not efficiently.”

“If I wanted to do things efficiently, I’d pick up a different hobby.” McCree grabbed himself another drink. He was the one who brought them this time; a pack of miscellaneous soda and non-alcoholic beer for the both of them. Hanzo could hear the carbonation fizz as he opens the tab. “Another round? We got plenty of time for me to keep kicking your ass across this chess board.”

“Oh, it is not me who will be losing, cowboy.” McCree smirked, saying nothing as he gathered up his pieces.

“Cowboy,” McCree said as he put his queen in place. He always started with that piece. _Gotta show respect to the best piece on the board_ , he claimed. “I remember you calling me that the first time we met.”

“You remember?” Hanzo was rather hoping he didn’t. At least, not in vivid detail.

McCree snorted, and Hanzo watched as he tried not to choke on his own soda. When he recovered himself, he cleared his throat. “You expect me not to? Pretty sure half the town remembers two grown men fighting over a park chess table.”

“We were not fighting.”

“Say that to the youtube video.”

Ah yes, the Youtube video. Hanzo wasn’t fond of it, a somewhat viral clip of two clearly hungover men wrestling each other over a chess table. It had over 1,000 views on youtube and was listed as “Old Men Lose Dignity They Didn’t Know They Still Had.” Hanzo had yet to forgive Sombra for posting it in the first place. “Your sister is a menace.”

McCree either didn’t hear him or ignored the comment. “Can’t believe it’s been almost a year. Seems like forever you know? We’ve come a long way from being two assholes fighting over a table.”

“Is that nostalgia, McCree?”

“I’m a “ _cowboy._ ”” McCree said, lifting up both hands to do finger quotes. “I should be nostalgic. Part of the whole deal.”

“They teach that in cowboy school?”

“That and a wide variety of partner jokes.” McCree finished setting up his last pawn and looked to Hanzo. “You ready?”

Hanzo almost said yes, before he paused. He’d considered doing this for a month or so now, just to see where it went, but he’d always hesitated, too afraid of running a friendship he treasured more than he’d like to admit. An important friendship, one made by a fight over a chess table by two drunken men low in their lives and desperate for anything to hang onto. A friendship that made him talk to Genji again, that got McCree to stop drinking as much, that got Hanzo the courage to take a better job, that got McCree to start doing his own research instead of letting everyone paint him the fool. The best friend Hanzo had ever had, really. Was that really worth risking?

Looking at McCree, legs kicked up on the bench, large smile on his face, Hanzo decided yes. Yes it was.

“Jesse?”

That captured McCree’s attention. Hanzo didn’t use first names all that often. “Yes?”

“Would you like to put a wager on this game?”

“A wager?” McCree tilted his head. “You looking to lose money?”

“Not a wager of that nature. Something else.”

“Alright, you got me interested. Shoot.”

Hanzo cleared his throat. Made sure to keep his voice steady. “One game. If I win…”

“If you win?” McCree said, waving his hand for Hanzo to get a move on with it.

“You agree to accompany me to dinner.”

McCree sat up straight so fast that his hat flew off his head and onto the ground. It was a sign to how stunned he was that he didn’t pick it up. “Excuse me?”

“You heard what I said.”

“Yeah I did, but don’t think I’m not sure I got the intention out of it.” Hanzo hadn’t seen McCree this shade of red since said chess fight video made it on the local news. “You mean I buy you dinner or like a date?”

Hanzo made sure to keep eye contact. If he was going to do this, he was going to commit. “Like a date.”

“A date date?”

“I wasn’t aware there was another kind.”

There was a long, painful beat of silence. Hanzo kept his gaze on McCree. If he said no, well then at least he tried. They could forget this ever happened and Hanzo could move on from his stupid crush and-

“...Alrighty. Then what do I get if I win?”

Hanzo almost dropped his beer. “Excuse me?”

“This is a wager, ain’t it? Gotta have a price for both sides. So what do I get if I win?”

Hanzo hadn’t expected this. He thought for a moment. “...That is all up to you.”

“Alright then. Well, if it’s all up to me, then how about this.” McCree held up one finger. “You win, you take me out to dinner.” He then held up another. “But if I win, I take you to a movie instead.”

“You cannot be serious.”

There was a loopy smile on McCree’s face. Hanzo felt his nerves dissipate, if only a little.“It’ll be a Western, just warning you. ‘Case the stakes weren’t high enough.”

Hanzo laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You’re the man who just asked me out through a bet. Think we’re even there,” McCree hovered his hand over the timer on the chess board. “If I beat you in under two, I’m buying you a corndog.”

Hanzo couldn’t help but grin. “And I will make you try something that isn’t fried. You’re on, cowboy.”

The game hadn’t even started, but it didn’t matter who really made it out on top, Hanzo thought.

Either way, he already won.


End file.
